Wait For Me
by Dusty1489
Summary: What if Xana wins? What if, just once, Aelita is too late? What happens then? ON HOLD.


"Go, Aelita!" Odd yelled, aiming carefully at the nearest laser-throwing box.  
  
"Aelita, hurry!" Jeremy cried. "You have about five seconds!"  
  
Aelita ran as fast as she could toward the tower. Something deep inside her, where her heart would be if she were real, something was throbbing. Not beating; no, it was irregular, like talking. Something inside of her was trying to speak.  
  
It's too late, Aelita. You're too late.  
  
No! she thought. No, I can't be too late.  
  
You're too late.  
  
Aelita touched the tower, and she knew the voice was right. But, she had to try; she had to at least attempt to save them all.  
  
She walked to the center of the disc once inside the tower, and felt the familiar pull as she rose upward. She stepped onto the second disc urgently, trying to push forward, trying to run. But she knew that was not possible. Not in the tower.  
  
The screen appeared in front of her. She placed her hand on the sensor. The letters appeared on the screen, C-O-D-E-  
  
Then it was gone. The screen, the discs, the walls of the tower; they were all gone. Aelita fell, screaming, "I'll come back for you Jeremy! Wait for me!" Flames rose up to engulf her, and she disappeared.  
  
"Aelita!" Jeremy screamed, staring in horror at his computer as it began to crackle and spark with energy. Then he noticed three more people in immediate danger. "Odd! Ulrich! Yumi! You have to get out of the game now! Commit suicide!"  
  
The three only hesitated a moment. Then, in a flash, Ulrich and Yumi ran to the ledge and leapt off, and Odd threw himself in the way of a laser from one of the boxes. They devirtualized.  
  
"C'mon, c'mon," Jeremy hissed, staring at his electrified monitor. The devirtualization was lagging. One second, two seconds, five seconds had passed, and still no sign of the three. In this case, no news was bad news.  
  
Then the virtualization pods opened with a hydraulic hiss, and Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi fell out. Jeremy tore off his headset and rushed to them.  
  
Yumi was on her hands and knees, coughing. Ulrich was moaning in pain, flat on his back. Odd was not moving. Jeremy dropped to his knees beside him.  
  
"Odd! C'mon, buddy, wake up! This isn't funny!" Jeremy yelled, shaking the boy's shoulders. Odd's flopped limply from side to side with the shaking, but he did not respond.  
  
Jeremy," Yumi wheezed. She grabbed her friends arm in a feeble attempt to restrain him. "Jeremy I...I don't think he's going to wake up."  
  
"No!" Jeremy cried, half-sobbing now. "No! He has to wake up, he has to!" He shook himself free of Yumi's grip.  
  
"He won't," Ulrich moaned. His eyes were closed and face tight against the pain in his lower back. "I think...something happened...the game...the injuries...they're real now...I think...I broke my back..." Indeed, now that Jeremy looked at him, Ulrich's body was bent at a funny angle.  
  
Yumi crawled over to Ulrich. His breath was coming in smothered gasps now. Sweat beaded on his upper lip. Yumi took his hand gently and smoothed his hair off his forehead.  
  
"Yumi..." Ulrich moaned. "Yumi...make it...make it go away...the pain...please...make it go...away..."  
  
"Shh," Yumi crooned, her hand tightening around his. "Hush, sweet. Don't talk. It's okay-"  
  
"No! It's not okay!" He lurched to his feet and stumbled away from Odd's body. "It's my fault. I told you guys to commit suicide! It's my fault Aelita's gone, my fault Ulrich broke his back, my fault Odd's...Odd's..." He couldn't make himself say the word dead. Maybe, if he didn't say it, it wouldn't be true. He stumbled back against the wall, panting, staring wildly around like a cornered animal.  
  
Yumi jumped up. "Jeremy-"  
  
"My fault, my fault, my fault," Jeremy panted. His eyes were jumping around as if looking for an escape route. When Yumi grabbed his arm, his eyes jumped to her, and he shrank against the wall.  
  
"Jeremy," she said firmly, and, to her credit, there was only the slightest tremor in her voice. "It's not your fault. If we hadn't committed suicide, we would all be dead, not just O-"  
  
"Don't!" Jeremy screamed. He pressed his hands to his ears and screwed his eyes up against the truth. "Don't say it!"  
  
"Jeremy! I have to! You have to! He's dead!"  
  
"Nooo," Jeremy sobbed, slumping to the floor. His face crumpled and fat tears rolled down his cheeks. He did not seem to notice them.  
  
Yumi sank down beside him. Cupping his cheek in her palm, she turned his face toward her. He stared at her through the tears, like a small child looking to his mother, waiting for her to kiss his boo-boos and make them all better. Trusting her. Yumi slipped automatically into the role, whispering, "Hush, Jer." Jeremy let out a half-choked sob at Odd's nickname for him. Yumi pushed her hand through Jeremy's hair, pulling it back out of his eyes.  
  
"Yumi," he sobbed, leaning his forehead against her cool, steady palm. "He's-he really is...dead...isn't he?" He almost choked on the word dead. It tasted so thick and heavy in his mouth. Yumi nodded sadly. "Is-" Jeremy continued hesitantly. "Is it my fault?"  
  
She shook her head vigorously, black hair flying into her face. "No! No, Jeremy. It's Xana's fault."  
  
Jeremy nodded mutely, accepting these truths as if they were merely facts from a textbook. Then he asked, almost too faintly for Yumi to hear, "Did Xana win, Yumi?"  
  
If there had been an easy way out of this question, Yumi would have taken it in a second. But there was no easy way out, at least not that Yumi could see. All she could do was tell him the truth. "Yes, Jeremy. Xana won."  
  
"Oh," he whispered. "Then...Aelita's gone?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"She said...she said she would come back for me. She said to wait for her."  
  
Just then, the ground below them gave a horrible lurch, knocking Yumi into Jeremy's lap and pushing them both back against the wall. Ulrich screamed in agony as the bones of his shattered spine ground against each other and his spinal cord.  
  
"We can wait for her somewhere else!" Yumi cried, stumbling over to Ulrich. Jeremy, his eyes as big as dinner plates, followed suit. Together, they managed to hoist Ulrich up and out the door, leaving Odd's body behind and trying to block out Ulrich's screams. 


End file.
